Last night at Portland City Hall, hundreds of Bike Commute Challenge participants gathered to celebrate over 1,000,000 miles of commutes during one of the rainiest Septembers on record.

Josh Alpert, Policy Director for the Office of Mayor Charlie Hales, recognized the investment that bike commuters made not only in their own health, but in the health of the community: by helping our roadways last longer, by making way for commercial goods to move through our city, and by increasing safety on our roadways.

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After what seems like several years of this BCC thing, I finally made it
to the afterparty. It’s not just phony cliche to say that I enjoyed it
immensely – the feeling *still* more than lingers.

In Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Pee-Wee says, “You don’t want to get mixed
up with a guy like me. I’m a loner, Dottie. A rebel.” I’ve been
“captain” of two or three BCC teams, but I’m not a leader. I *am* a
loner – a rebel.

But we all of us humans have interhuman needs, and it was so awesome
hanging with all of you Thursday night. Thank you so much for making
me feel welcome and part of a community!

I’ve reconsidered the Portland-centric-ness of BTA. An example of what
can be is needed to give real hope to the rest of the world that is
stuck in the last millenium, and Portland is doing it.

Where I live and ride, motorists encountering a bicycle on the road get
all, “OMG, a _bicycle on the road_!”, and while most of them are very
nice and accommodating, the situation is still this big anomolous dis-
ruption to the normal business of driving and an “issue” until they get
past it. And there is a too high probability that – instead of being
very nice and accommodating – all the stresses and resentments of this
motorist will find outlet on this handy “weirdo” (- too often).

The BCC party was my second visit to Portland in recent months (the
first was when “The Little Comets” played Lola’s Room 🙂 Both times
I watched in awe as the bikes went by. It’s not Amsterdam or Copenhagen
– nor should it be; it’s its own version. Cars still dominate, but the
bicycle transportation mode is beyond infancy, beyond toddling – it’s
emerging from precocious exuberance to… dare I say, an establishment.
Motorists don’t freak out when they have to deal with a bike (or two,
or three, or four); they just handle it with aplomb and no horn honking
or yelling or hostile maneuvering – what would be the point? If they
don’t like the bicyclist(s) they have to deal with right now, just wait
fifteen seconds and another one (or two, or three… ) will come along.

The point is, the movement in Portland has _changed motorist attitudes_!

I know it’s not perfect and all roses, but it’s evident; and palpable.

I don’t live in Portland right now, haven’t for a few years now. However, I love to watch this challenge and wished I had it in my state of Texas.

I worked at Intel and organized and motivated people to get out of their cars and on their bikes. We started with less than 50 people the first year. By the fourth year we had close to 1000 riders. However, that many riders doesn’t even come close to the percentages enjoyed by smaller organizations. I envisioned having 30% of Intel employees on their bikes. That would’ve been close to 5000 riders. That would’ve created a problem for the roads in Hillsboro I would’ve loved to see.

I’ve always thought there should be a different category for larger than 10K employees, or have them measured on a different scale, other than % of rider to employees.